Obligation To Do
Thai people have something called "khwamkrengjai". This is a word that basically describes the feeling of obligation to someone else.
Being the good Payne that I am, I brought home made chocolate chip cookies to work. Just to be cute, you know. Everyone that works there is Thai except for me and a Chinese Canadian girl (all the customers think she is Thai though...come on, don't be ignorent... it's kinda funny). Thai people don't do well with north american sweets. They are just too sweet for them. I knew this before I decided to make the cookies, but I just couldn't resist the opportunity.
I brought the cookies in, and just to be polite, everyone had one, but there were still lots left over. Knowing before hand about this "khwamkrengjai" I jokingly told one of the girls that they had to eat all of them. On my next trip to the kitchen, there were only 2 cookies left. You see, if you have to offer something more than once in the Thai culture, they automatically have this obligation to do. Even though the cookies were probably way too sweet and too chocolatley, they still ate just about every one. This is khwankrengjai. Don't you wish we had it?
2 woot-woots!:
I had a Vietmanese "sweet roll" today and I thought of you because it was filled with beans.
I guess the Vietmanese people think beans are sweet too.
Eden thought it was gross, but I made her hold it in her hand until we were out of sight of the premesis. I felt obigated... or kw;lkasera;ien...whatever that word was.
yep, you have it too...khwamkrengjai. what a great thing.
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